Refillable bottles are already on the market, in which the body is equipped with a valve for filling the container which is arranged to allow a product source to be brought into communication with said container in order to fill said container.
EP-2 708 286 describes such a refillable bottle, in which the valve comprises a conduit for communication between the source and the container, said conduit having a seat which is equipped with a flap valve which is movable relative to said seat between a sealed closed position and an open position of said conduit under the effect of gravity, which is caused by positioning the bottle in an upright position and in an upside-down position respectively.
This solution is not entirely satisfactory in that the flap valve is free to move between the closed and open positions thereof when the bottle is moved alternately between the upright and upside-down positions thereof, even when the valve is not connected to a product source, and this may adversely affect the sealing of said valve when said bottle is in use.
In over to overcome this drawback, EP-2 719 466 provides a device for locking the flap valve in the closed position, said device being arranged so as to be manually deactivated by the user. However, prior to filling the bottle, the user thus has to make a specific gesture in order to deactivate the device for locking the flap valve.